Fern and Charlotte: The Women of Charlotte's Web

As I read Charlotte's Web, I noted the fact that all the main characters were animals in a way that I never had when reading this book as a child. Even so, the characters and their plights seem just as important now as they did earlier in my life. In reflecting on how White was able to attribute so much agency and personality to these barnyard creatures, I began to see that the necessary link is Fern. The humans dwell in the periphery for the majority of the novel, but they did dominate the very beginning. Fern gives life to Wilbur through her love and concern for him. Fern literally gives Wilbur human qualities by treating him like a child when he is small. Fern acts as a defender of natural justice in arguing that each creature must be free to live out its own life. Her values fly in the face of her father's sense of (economic?) justice in which runts are a drain to the farm, but still make decent eating. Fern provides the setup of Wilbur's character that allows the reader to relate to him later.

This debate over what is "right" in life and death continues through the voice of Charlotte after the shift from the human-focused Arable farm to the animal-focused Zuckerman farm. Wilbur develops his own voice and meets Charlotte A. Cavatica, the well-spoken, intelligent barn spider. Like Fern, Charlotte wants to help Wilbur live and to prevent his slaughter. Charlotte, like Fern, sees that giving value to Wilbur as a special, unique pig and personality will stay the hands of John Arable and Homer Zuckerman's axe. Fern's sincereity and passion for saving Wilbur motivate's her father to see Wilbur's life as valuable, and does not kill him. Likewise, Charlotte's cleverness in writing Wilbur's exceptionality provides enough value to Wilbur's life for Zuckerman to not only spare his life, but to also showcase him at the fair.

Though Fern gradually loses interest in seeing Wilbur often, Charlotte's friendship, webs, and plots (involving the comical Templeton) fill his life with meaning and growth. Charlotte's character reflects the marriage of the tradtional, patriarchal image of the "earth mother" and the clever, educated, intellectual, independent woman. Charlotte's vocabulary punctuates Wilbur's barnyard education and her clever writing saves him. Charlotte balances the right amount of suggested excellence with suggested humility. She is Wilbur's friend, teacher, protector, and friend. Yet, she is also a mother and a spider. She alarms Wilbur when he sees the brutality of the way she eats insects. Yet her manner with him is calm and gentle. Charlotte also acknowledges her egg sack as her "prime opus," her masterpiece in her life. For Charlotte, it is the cycle of life and the natural world that wins over her literary works and cleverness. As a strong female character, she meets death head on. Fern sees Wilbur's value in the present, but Charlotte embraces his value in both the present and the future. Charlotte's legacy, three of her children (Joy, Aranea, and Nellie) remain with Wilbur to continue their mother's friendship and work in the barn.

Fern provides the initial human push and setup for the reader interest in Wilbur. Through Fern's eyes, the reader encounters the themes of injustice vs justice and of how to view death. Fern shows the reader that unnatural, inflicted death is injust. Charlotte demonstrates how natural death is also difficult, but it is also "right."




This is a video from the 2006 movie production of Charlotte's Web. This segment of the film highlights the moment that Charlotte marries her status as mother with her literary intellect.